Formula One: Revealed

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Studio Liverpool is ready to race! Details and images inside.

By Douglass C. Perry

In the early days of the PlayStation, Psygnosis was one of the first teams to bring gamers a huge range of videogame experiences ranging from racing to adventure to shooters to simulations. Formula One was one of the most coveted games of its time for a small niche who adored the sport. And now, Psygnosis has gone back to its roots to bring gamers a brand new experience on PlayStation 2, with Formula One 2001.

The most important aspect to a religion such as the one surrounding Formula One is authenticity. Studio Liverpool will incorporate all of the drivers, teams, and tracks from the genuine racing phenomenon, but plans to distinguish itself from its competitors as well.

The best example of this is how players can save their data. Using the 8MB Memory card, players can save their race data, and then compare their standings with others who have raced previously, with rankings such as pro, amateur, and rookie. Using a flexible replay system, players can manipulate their replay data with amazing ease. They can also see large segments of their races in replay scenes, which can be saved to Memory cards, and change the camera angles so that replays can be seen from several perspectives that they choose. You can even see two replays at once, if you so choose.

Other interesting features include spatial stereo sound options, powerful graphics detail, and a newly enhanced sense of immersion. One can only imagine how fast the cars drive, or how fast the sense of speed is, as it's delivered by the millions of polygons flying by your face in each frame of animation. As you can see from the screenshots themselves, the level of detail and the richness of the textures prove to be impressive just on their own!

SCEE didn't provide any more details than this, but make sure to come back in the next few weeks. After all, this one is supposed to appear at launch in Europe -- and hopefully in the US, too. More on that later!